An former AfD municipal politician has been convicted by the Hamburg District Court of multiple insults and fined 800 euros, in his absence. As the newspaper taz reported, Reinhard S. did not show up for the verdict on Friday, even though he had defended himself earlier in the day and had pleaded for acquittal. The judge said such a no-show in 15 years “has never happened,” and a phone call to the defendant also went unanswered.
Former party ally: “Not a choirboy”
The four counter-demonstrators aged between 50 and 70 were singled out by S. and his Saint Bernard during a January 2022 protest in Hamburg against COVID-19 measures. The court found that, in the company of his dog, he circled the group and hurled insults at them. According to taz, he called one of the women a “dirty slut” and one of the men a “cowardly gay man.”
Former party comrade: “Not a choirboy”
The four demonstrators had previously shown the protesters the middle finger. When one of the protesters attempted to photograph them with her cellphone, they approached the woman to deter her from taking pictures. Then S. intervened. In court, he claimed that the counter-demonstrators had threatened the woman and that he had been trying to help her. One of the men rejected this: “That is not our wording.” The judge found the statements of the witnesses who testified for S. to be false or not relevant to the case.
The court issued a verdict that was below the prosecution’s demand, but it agreed with the prosecution’s assessment of the sequence of events. The prosecutor cited a former party ally of the defendant: Thorsten Prenzel, parliamentary managing director of the AfD’s Hamburg parliamentary faction, who had described S. as “not a choirboy.” S.’s lawyer, Martin Kohlmann, did not appear at any of the four trial days.
Investigations were also opened against the counter-demonstrators
Prior to the 2025 trial, there was a separate case against the four counter-demonstrators that the public prosecutor’s office had brought because of the middle-finger gesture. They were acquitted because the gesture was not directed at a single person and they had not threatened anyone.
The judge, according to taz, showed understanding for the four’s anger. One of the women said that they had technically won twice now. Yet the public prosecutor’s office had, in 2025, allowed itself to be dragged into the affair and tried to muzzle critics.
